Thursday, August 25, 2016

Top 10 Art Advocacy Strategies for Back-to-School

Today's blog post is written by guest blogger and fellow NYSATA (NY State Art Teachers Association) board member Donnalyn Shuster. Donnalyn
recently retired after a 35 year career in K-12 art education.
She serves as one of our award-winning NYSATA Youth Art Month
Co-chairs, conducts professional development for art educators and is a
practicing watercolor artist. A graduate of SUNY Potsdam with both a BA
and MS in Education, she mentors art education students and teaches at
the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts in Little Falls, NY. Below is her article.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

As summer turns the corner into August, along with hot and
humid days the all too-familiar "Back-to-School Blues" becomes the tune
playing in the back of our heads. What to do? What curricular areas should I
focus on? What will be the new ‘buzz words’ this fall? How can I manage more
students, more classes, less money in the budget, and at the same time, find
ways to advocate successfully for my program?

The answer lies below…in our Top 10 August Art Advocacy
Strategies to ease that stress!

Never sell yourself short! That
means – you can self-promote your program and curriculum shamelessly – without
the nagging fear that you are simply blowing your own horn. Start off with a
program promotional brochure to hand out at Open House! (An example of a promo brochure I've used can be seen at the bottom of this post.) Include key areas such
as:

Your educational background (
degrees and certifications), professional memberships (of course starting with your state association of art educators), and some basic information about you (years in education, specialty
as an artist, recent exhibitions, etc)

Get on the Board of Education
meeting calendar for fall – to discuss program, new Learning Standards, ways
you incorporate Common Core, advocacy work done, and orient them to the skills
taught that are in demand for the job market.Consider giving them a creative challenge along the way too….

Plan, with your principal – a
short, hands on workshop for your facultyto engage in during the first day of
meetings. I have introduced themes and school wide events that way. (At my
former elementary school, The Dot by Peter Reynolds was the motivation for a short drawing for
staff to do for a collaborative installation of their works along with the work of students. I pointed out that the book could be a resource for
spin-off lessons, including fractions, repetition, cylindrical sculptures, mixed
media paintings, collage, and pattern, as well as the concepts of taking things one step at a
time, creating giant one day art installations, etc.)

Set up a meeting with content area
teachers – how you can assist Social Studies teachers with use of primary
source documents, how to ‘read’ a historic painting or photograph using Visual
Thinking Strategies, demonstrate the clear integration of art with traditional
content areas. Share your content area standards with them directly – and find
a way to build a meaningful, collaborative unit.Demonstrate how valuable your support can be!

Design info graphics using Canva –
for display in room or on web site – statistics on the importance of art, etc.
( www.canva.com)

Make
“Business Cards” to hand out at Open House – name and contact information –
laminate and glue a magnet to the back.

Create
a set of 5 talking points on value of Art Education – have them ready to expand
on at any time.Keep them on a card in
your plan book, date book, store on your phone…for that ‘teachable moment’ that
can occur anytime! Building allies that support the visual arts – the
opportunity can arise at any time!

Get
on the agenda at a fall PTO meeting – to educate parents who are involved in
education about the value of art programs – give them a challenge to complete
as well. Planning ahead for YAM (Youth Art Month)? This is the time to put March on their radar
screen now….and enlist their support in planning and hopefully helping to fund
events.Need information? Click this link for our NYSATA (NY State Art Teachers Association) YAM page: http://www.nysata.org/youth-art-month

This blog is generated in NY state,
where school traditionally starts right after Labor Day. I know readers
from elsewhere in the United States are often back to school as much as
a month before us, but if you are a reader who is already well into
your school year, you might still find some helpful info for right now,
or to tuck away for future use. It is never too late to incorporate new advocacy ideas!!

All links in this article are now included in the "Useful Links" on the right side of the blog, if you are viewing a web version. Check back frequently, as I plan to be adding new links on a regular basis!